Fifty
by arliddian
Summary: Fifty standalone fics, each one sentence long. Kyro.


**Fifty**

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><p><strong>Summary:<strong> Fifty standalone fics, each one sentence long. Kyro.  
><strong>Timeline:<strong> Spans the trilogy, plus a few AU.  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> All things recognisably X-Men aren't mine - I just like making up my own stories.  
><strong>Author's Note:<strong> This was a challenge on livejournal. Please tell me which ones you liked best! :)

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><p>#01 – Ring<p>

Whenever the phone rang, Kitty wondered why she was always so surprised that it wasn't John on the other end.

#02 – Hero

Even if heroes did exist, John Allerdyce knew beyond all doubt that he wasn't Kitty's.

#03 – Memory

After the nightmares subsided, Kitty would squeeze her eyes shut and recall every detail of their last night together, forgetting that the memory she traced over and over again was nothing more than imagination and regret.

#04 – Box

When she handed him the box containing the collection of lighters he had left behind, he could barely choke out a _thank you_, because all he could think was that she had somehow _known_ he'd come back.

#05 – Run

Kitty tugged on his hand, laughing as they ran through the walls into the garden, and John marvelled at the way her fingers felt so solid and strong entwined with his.

#06 – Hurricane

Kitty always stood calmly on the edge of the hurricane of John's anger, waiting patiently to fix the damage once the destruction had ceased.

#07 – Wings

John stared at Kitty's angel wings and gold-tinsel halo, and couldn't resist pulling her towards him and kissing her square on her candy-flavoured mouth.

#08 – Cold

"I just don't understand," she said angrily, ignoring the tears sliding down her face, "how a boy who manipulates fire could ever be so _cold_."

#09 – Red

He liked to tease her until she was red-faced with anger and embarrassment, because then when he kissed her, she squeaked in surprise and clung to him even tighter.

#10 – Drink

Kitty came downstairs one night to make herself some hot chocolate, and, surprised to find John Allerdyce already seated at the table, glaring at her, she smiled and fixed two cups.

#11 – Midnight

At midnight, John always slipped back to his own room – not for fear of being caught by a teacher, but because he wanted to be downstairs in case she had another nightmare and fell through his ceiling.

#12 – Temptation

It was tempting to hate him for leaving, but Kitty had learned long ago that she was incapable of feeling anything like hatred for the boy who called himself Pyro.

#13 – View

When John had shared his views on mutant-human relations with her, she had chosen not to try and argue with him, and now she regretted that choice more than any other decision she had ever made.

#14 – Music

Kitty had always irrationally thought that her first kiss would be accompanied by the swell of some orchestral score – instead, it was accompanied by the surprised gasps of her classmates as John (not her original thought for her first kiss, either) pressed her against the Danger Room wall.

#15 – Silk

He sent glowing threads of flame towards her, floating like silk scarves on a breeze, and she simply walked through them and kissed his salty lips.

#16 – Cover

Gently, she covered his burnt and bloody hand with both of hers and told him, "It was never what defined you."

#17 – Promise

The only promise he ever made to Kitty was that he would never be good enough for her – in her eyes, he broke it when he decided to come back.

#18 – Dream

After Alcatraz, Kitty thought she'd have nightmares of flames and burning metal and the boy who set the air alight – instead, she dreamt of blackness, and the boy's face fading into the shadows.

#19 – Candle

Her spirit was like a flame dancing on a wick, and when she saw him fall at Alcatraz, it was as if someone had clapped a glass over her candle, stealing her oxygen.

#20 – Talent

He had a certain talent for shutting her up by making her blush; she had a similar talent for rendering him speechless by pressing her mouth to his.

#21 – Silence

Kitty whispered, _"I need you,"_ and Pyro could do nothing but stare at her.

#22 – Journey

Kitty knew that the journey to him would be long and full of obstacles, but she persevered, struggling on patiently so she could slip through his walls and touch his heart.

#23 – Fire

When he kissed her, the logs on the fire crackled and flared even higher – but neither one noticed, too wrapped up in each other.

#24 – Strength

"I can't do this," she whispered tearfully, and he pulled her into his arms and said, "You can."

#25 – Mask

She found that with her smile on, Bobby and the others stopped asking her if she was okay, so she kept it plastered on her face and only cried for John when she was alone in the dark of his room.

#26 – Ice

Kryptonite to Superman was ice to John, and the way Kitty made him feel, she might as well have been made of it.

#27 – Fall

He saw her stumble and trip, and had to stop himself from going to her and helping her up – that was when he realised, in the midst of war, that he had very inconveniently fallen for Kitty Pryde.

#28 – Forgotten

"I'd forgotten all about this;" John said throatily, touching her necklace, "I didn't think you'd keep it."

#29 – Dance

John didn't understand Kitty's love of dancing with the music turned off, but he danced with her anyway and didn't complain when she led.

#30 – Body

What amazed him most of all was how perfectly Kitty's body fit against his – it made him decide that karma couldn't possibly exist, because the universe had taken his many crimes and misdeeds and given him the other half of his soul in return.

#31 - Sacred

His room became sacred to her, with all his things placed exactly the way they were before he left, letting her pretend just for a little while that he would come back – then one day she phased through the door and found the room stripped bare.

#32 - Farewells

Kitty didn't tell anyone, but after Dr Grey's (first) memorial service, once everyone had paid their last respects and headed inside, out of the corner of her eye she saw a boy in tall boots crouch several feet from the headstone and light a small candle.

#33 - World

For a while, John was part of Kitty's small world, a world contained mostly within the walls of Xavier's school – but after a while, he realised that his place in that world wasn't where he wanted to be forever, and that was part of the reason why he left.

#34 - Formal

After they fought, they'd be ridiculously cool towards one another – she would call him St John, and he would call her Katherine – but the formality never lasted long, and they always ended up locked in a furious embrace.

#35 - Fever

During her bout of the flu after the events of Alkali Lake, she could have sworn that John was by her bedside, flicking his lighter and making snide comments, but it had only been her fevered imagination.

#36 - Laugh

"Quit laughing at me," she grinned, pushing wet hair out of her eyes, and she grasped his ankle and pulled him into the pool.

#37 - Lies

He couldn't bear to say things like "I'll stay" and "I won't leave you", because as much as he wanted to mean them, he knew they were just lies – and she deserved more than a liar.

#38 - Forever

"I can't promise you forever," he began, but she cut him off with "I don't need you to."

#39 - Overwhelmed

Every day he felt overwhelmed by the knowledge that he could never give her what she had given him, but he was unaware that she felt the same way.

#40 - Whisper

He told her he loved her once and once only – after midnight, to her sleeping form, in a voice barely above a whisper.

#41 - Wait

Kitty waited patiently for him to open his eyes and finally see that she wasn't going anywhere.

#42 - Talk

"I didn't come here to talk," he said to the frightened girl before him, a cruel glint of menace in his eyes.

#43 - Search

He knew that if he looked for her, he would be able to find her easily – but he also knew that sooner or later, she would come to him.

#44 - Hope

The letter in her trash can read: _Dear John, I'm trying not to hope that you come back (because somehow I know you won't), but that doesn't stop me from wishing you would._

#45 - Eclipse

He was cruel and pushed her away in the hopes that anger and hatred would eclipse any affection she felt towards him – then he wouldn't be able to disappoint her.

#46 – Gravity

They found that whenever they were in the same room, somehow, inexplicably, they were drawn to one another.

#47 – Highway

She drove blankly down the highway, trying to believe that she could leave her memories of the boy who played with fire behind as easily as she had left the mansion.

#48 – Unknown

John disliked the dark because he was wary of the possibilities – _threats_ – contained within the unknown; he stayed away from the girl called Shadowcat for the same reason.

#49 – Lock

The only lock that could keep Kitty Pryde out was the one on John's heart, and she was determined to find her way past it.

#50 – Breathe

In one fluid movement, their lips pressed together and they breathed as one, and that was all the reality they needed.


End file.
